MY SOTU Thoughts

I get it, I do. The State of the Union address is generally kind of a pep rally for one party or another; the chance to crow about what you’ve done, and what you want to do. And I get that it’s almost always partisan, with the side that doesn’t have the White House sitting there stone-faced while the President speaks.

Both sides do it, I get that.

But what I don’t get is how, while Obama was speaking last night and talking about how far we’ve come in the last six years — the economy, jobs, healthcare, the War Based On Lies In Iraq — is why the GOP sat on their hands. I mean, they couldn’t even be bothered to clap for the fact that the economy is better than it was, that the jobs outlook is better than it was, that millions of people who’ve never been insured before now have healthcare.

They couldn’t even be bothered to applaud for America, for Americans, because the guy in charge while all this was going on is a Democrat and, yes I’ll say it, a Black Democrat at that.

It sickened me to see Orange Is The Old Boehner sitting their smug and disinterested when the President talked about rebounding from a recession; sure there’s work to be done, but we are better off than we were in 2008 after the Bush Regime, and yet Boehner cannot even be happy with that.

It sickened me to see Paul Ryan not even bother to show a modicum of respect for the President because he’s a member of the ‘other’ party. Why not cheer that things in America are improving? Why not cheer all that your party has done to make things better for—

Oh, yeah, maybe Ryan and Boehner and Paul and the rest of those Republicans couldn’t cheer for the successes of the Obama president y because they tried to thwart him at every turn.

Or maybe they couldn’t cheer because he schooled them …

 “I have no more campaigns to run …”

And there was a smattering of GOP applause because, they know, if he did have the option to run again, he’d wipe up the floor with them, again, and then he said:

“I know, because I won both of them.”

The GOP was served in that moment, and it was priceless.

And it was priceless that he made mention of marriage equality, after being the first sitting president to advocate for same-sex marriage; it was priceless that he became the first president to mention of transgender and bisexual, brothers and sisters during a State of the Union address.

It’s priceless, because his approval numbers are up, and will probably continue to go up, and things will continue to change and we will see marriage equality across the country, and we will see LGBT rights expanded and we will see the GOP sitting on their hands, doing nothing, offering nothing, complaining about everything.

Obama isn’t going to sit this one out, these last couple of years; he’s going to continue working for us …

Unlike the other guy.